Opinion from a guy in the stands

January 26, 2017

Backing Boyata

Brendan Rodgers has a track record of turning round a players career. Last season you’d be lying if you said Forrest, Brown, Armstrong or Lustig were still good players in a Celtic shirt.
All four have come on leaps and bounds since and Brendan his given them a future at Celtic Park. It’s still early days but Boyata may be able to do the same.
If you remember back to his first few games he was excellent. Qarabag at home in particular he had a fantastic game and eventually scored the winner.
From there he didn’t seem to be able to make even the simplest of passes. Something really didn’t make sense. Chances are we’ll never be able to put our finger on it.
This season Sviatchenko and Simunovic have struck up a strong partnership and it’s been hard to get near the side. Even O’Connell who did really well when he stepped in couldn’t get a sniff.
His only chance came against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. He looked shaky, nervous and didn’t play well at all.
At that point I thought he’d be away and that’s the last we’d ever see of him.
Then of course the Albion Rovers game. Playing against lower league opposition I expected the team to be rotated and a couple of the fringe players to be given an opportunity. It’s hard for a central defender to make an impact as there’s not much defending to do but Rovers game plan gave him this opportunity.
When winning the ball back they’d go long and look for their target man. Boyata obviously being a big physical prescense bullied him. Regardless of opposition physicality doesn’t really come into it. It’s actually a fair argument that lower league players are more physical than premier division players. In that sense he was fantastic.
The big man went in to the St Johnstone game full of confidence after praise from the bhoys of green blog Brendan Rodgers and he was without doubt the man of the match.
Ok, he didn’t win the official award, but with Broony reaching the landmark of 400 games he could’ve had a shocker and still won MOTM for the applause.
Again, a dominant performance. Won every header, scored the winner and could’ve had a hat-trick if not for another 2 cleared off the line. Comfortable in possession and some of his long balls were pinpoint. With the exception of one dodgy pass he was flawless. The most impressive part was his goal saving challenge in the first half.
Obviously the jury is still out – I’m not saying he’s no going to be the main man. However, if he can continue to flourish in the same way as some of the others he may still have a future at Parkhead.